The Bread & Butter Tradeshow for Selected Brands, an urban fashion week of sorts, is heading back to its hometown for this year’s events. Cyclezine friend and darling, Lily poses for the IAM1 Journey flier that will exhibit the history of the AF-1. If by some chance you’re ‘in the neighborhood’ (halfway around the world), drop by and say ‘Hallo’ <-german joke.

It’s been a sad week for sure and while we try pretty hard to keep all of our posts bike related, this week’s events could not go unmentioned. Lots of things and people have passed on quite recently. Of note: Farah Fawcett; Ed McMahon; Michael Jackson; Iz the Wiz; and even Kodachrome film.

Rest in Peace

The last three, MJ, IZ and Kodachrome have touched a nerve for the authors here at CZ and we are quite broken up at this three-fold loss of culture. You will all be missed for sure.

MJ influenced generations with his music.

Iz taught us that art didn’t just belong in galleries, and changed the way we saw the urban landscape. Growing up with Subway Art and Wild Style, Iz always seemed like the cool older brother that we never had.

And while this last loss wasn’t a person, and it’s not meant to lessen the impact of a physical death, but it had as large of an impact as the above two people: It changed the way people look at the world. With a camera and a roll of film, we saw things in ways that we had never seen them before. So like the above two, Kodak’s Kodachrome film will also be missed after 75 years of being the best.

Yanked this from Pete Gowdy's Flare site today. Looks he is guest-curating an Oddball films screening of vintage cycling films tomorrow on Capp Street. For those of you not going to the American Velodrome Challenge at Hellyer in San Jose, head on over. I've seen a couple of these and they are pretty damn entertaining. But just a quick warning for

those of you expecting “A Sunday in Hell” or similar, this isn't for you! Think along the lines of Reefer Madness, but with bicycles instead of pot. Oddball films is known for their extensive archive of, well, odd archival films with an an 'interesting quality' (not to mention: bringing Ridley Scott to SF to film Blade Runner). For details on the event, go to flarerecord.com.

I just wanted to say ”thanks” to all my friends in San Francisco who, in the last minutes before my departure, equipped me with all these goodies needed for CycleZine to organize a very big alleycat race here in Bangkok. Please stay tuned for the schedule.

Leave it to the French to take a scenario from the film world and bring it into real life, but with a totally amazing twist. Yes, in the 1970s there was a little known comedy called “The Longest Yard”(later remade starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Nelly, and some other notable dudes) about a rag-tag group of prisoners who end up forming a football team and take on the warden and guards right there in the prison yard! Hilarity ensues, of course, with Burt Reynolds playing the role of quarterback and general loose cannon.

Yes, a fictional account made real – an absurdist dream, and with a very French twist: instead of playing football, the inmates are allowed to ride bicycles! Indeed, they have their own team! As 2009 marks the first year of the Tour de France Penitentiare.

Photo Courtesy Reuters

Philosophically speaking, the French have always been well ahead of the rest of the world. We have them to thank for surrealism and situationalism, not to mention Sartre's wonky eyeball, DeBord's odd cartography, and Magritte's old pipe. It is no stretch of the imagination to hear that in a French jail, there are inmates training to be cyclists. While prison may be the most un-free place in the world, these killers, thieves, and other criminals are given the chance to participate in the most free of all sports (as already established last week with our very own Bicycle Hobo-ism article). What was once a life of heavy stillness and imminent suicide, filled with nothing but cramped quarters, all-too-public bowel movements, and heaps bad food is now made a bit happier thanks to the bicycle.

To further prove the point that France leads the way when it comes to social change, and cultural evolution, I happily present the following fact: “Wardens, guards, judges and prisoners ride shoulder-to-shoulder, indistinguishable from one another in their match

ing white jerseys, helmets and cycling shorts.” This show of humanity is quite rare even among respectable people, but to extend such compassion and indifference to criminals is exceedingly amazing. Having all men wear white is mighty symbolic, no? Oui.

A touching bit of symbolism - all participants in White

Some particulars about the race: “Officials chose the nearly 200 participating inmates from across France, prisoners with terms as short as two years and as long as 25. They are men and women, young and old, petty crooks and hardened criminals — including rapists and killers.” They will take the the road and accomplish a total of 15 stages, ranging in length from about 90 miles to as much as 135, with no rest days, and they must ride as a group. They will, of course, skip the fanfare and champagne though they will be finishing in Paris, in keeping with cycling lore and tradition.

The plain fact is that the French Ministry of Justice is allowing the use of a positive activity in order to help rehabilitate those in need, and that is worth all the applause in the world. As hard as it is to ignore a person's past, let alone the former transgressions of a career criminal, that is an aspect of humanity that we can all embrace and learn from. If I may tap into my own inner Frenchman momentarily and wax poetic: The past is nothing we can correct or even apologize for – but the future, the future is always something we can control. By giving these prisoners entrance into the world of cycling, they will become better humans and will return into society as helpful individuals.

Read more about the race here: USA Today article. Or, if you are up on your French, you can watch this youtube video:

And, I would just like to take this moment to pat myself on the back for not making a bad pun on ”breaking away”.

Well hello there! It's been some time since our last installment of Seen On Ebay and since today is Father's Day, I've found the perfect gift! Because I know that our 4 faithful readers not only seek out the latest in cycling trends, but at least one of you has a dad and probably hasn't gotten him a gift yet. So without further ado, I present you with:

There are two past times that capture the free spirit of easy living better than any other human activity, and both share many similarities as far as history and transportation go. The bicycle and the train were both monumental inventions that propelled our world into an entirely new state that allowed us tiny people the ability to move!

Two types of Rambling

Yes, right around the time that the first Steam Engines were being considered, and tracks were being plunked down criss-crossing all across this country, we also had the birth of the Bicycle. Like all good things, both of these inventions were born out of necessity and Read the rest of this entry…

In my opinion, the Suntour Superbe Pro track hub was one of, if not the best track hub ever created- this goes for most modern hubs as well. It was a solid, well made, smooth spining hub that has yet to be rivaled.

Chris- a friend of mine, not willing to delve into the dark depths of tubular wheels recently asked me to remove the hubs (coincidentally) from my favorite tubular, Super Champion's Arc en Ciel. Being a well versed cyclist, Chris wanted the hubs properly detensioned from the rims so as not to shock them and ruin them from another build.

As I was taking the hubs to task, I noticed they were a bit different than normal. First off, the decals did not state “Superbe Pro”, but rather just “Superbe”. I know that early SSP was just labeled Superbe, so that wasn't too much of a surprise. But on close inspection I also noticed that the hub barrels carried the same stamp as the original 'Superbe' large flange hub (Campy clone, with cut-outs), furthermore, it carried the same gold decal not found on later SSP hubs.

The last odd thing was that these hubs were NOT sealed bearing as their later versions, but plain old dustcap, ball bearings and cones.

regular old non sealed bearings

What this looked like to me is that Suntour took the old version of the Superbe hub, skipped the cutouts on the side and repurposed them as the new SSP. This wouldn't suprise me as most people don't realize that Suntour was a bit of a cottage industry and I'm sure they had to make due with the supplies on hand before ordering more. Of course, this is only a theory and others are welcome. Either way, they are a great looking set of hubs.

Lastly. Take a look at this early SSP dealer catalog. Another version of the SSP hub that only read Superbe. These hubs also do not have the traditional 'ring' decal found on the outer flange and they also feature a bulge on the barrel ends reminiscent of early Superbe High Flange track.

Early dealer brochure. Click for bigger, check out the track hubs. Image courtesty of Yellow Jersey.